Trip Report:. Volcan Irazu

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Volcan Irazu sits just 45 miles away from our hotel, however navigating through the horrendous traffic in San Jose and driving up behind big trucks and slow buses meant a two hour journey that brought us to the top just after 10am this morning. All of the guide books say that the best possibility of weather occurs before 10 am, so we were hopeful that we would still see the crater before the clouds obscured our views.  


Sitting above 11000 feet, we found that we got pretty winded after just a short stroll through the barren landscape. We did manage to see both craters, then drove up to the very top to look down below and perhaps get lucky and see both the Pacific Ocean in the Caribbean. But it was not to be, as the clouds just rolled in and enveloped us. Still, it was worth the drive and the $32 (but had we been residents of Costa Rica it would only have costed us two bucks – they make the tourist pay for the improvements and upkeep!) since the other volcano, Volcan Poas, near San Jose is officially closed to tourists. 

The Rush to the Airport Lounge

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Today is a Transit day as we fly from Cancun Mexico to San Jose Costa Rica. Left our Resort and 10:15am this morning and figured it would give us enough time to check in at the airport counter, go through immigrations and Customs, go through security, and then find our way to the lounge.  The only catch is that we had to be at the lounge by 12 pm, after that time, they no longer accept members of the priority pass Lounge club, a benefit of one of our credit cards.  So we were on the clock to get there by noon. 

Fortunately our taxi driver made good time and we arrived to the airport by 11:15., which gave us enough time to redistribute some of the weight around our luggage as we were limited to only 20 kg each between our four pieces. 
We had some waiting to do at the check-in counter, and when we finally got up to the counter our agent had some sort of issue with our passports and sent us to the immigration customs office for them to inspect our passports. So we lugged our bags and made the trek to the office, got the necessary stamp, made our way back to the ticket counter and a different airline agent processed our check-in.  
Finally it was on to the security line, which went relatively fast but once through the security gate Lisa’s bag was inspected because she had a sunblock aerosol can that exceeded the ounces limit and my backpack was pulled because I forgot to remove my Chromebook and send it through the machine in a separate tub.  Whoops. 
We still had time to spare and were able to get into our lounge with 5 minutes left.  How do I access to the lounge makes a big difference as we get complimentary food and drink, comfy chairs, our own private bathrooms and Speedy Wi-Fi.  This is a great way to end our trip to Cancun and the start for our journey to Costa Rica.

Paradise at a Price

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We have enjoy the last few days lazing about at the Wyndham Viva Azteca all-inclusive resort.  However, we have come to the realization that it does come with a price… mosquitos! Poor Lisa has managed to obtain forty itchy bites all over her arms and legs, while I got lucky and have only ten or so. Stupid mosquitos! Well, here are the essentials to bring, but our problem was in not using our repellent before it was too late! Lesson learned…

Trip Report: Xcaret Eco Park

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Stayed overnight at the all-inclusive Hotel Xcaret, which includes admission to their namesake ecological park. After checking into our room, we rode the shuttle bus and got into the park just before 4pm…and we packed in as much as we could during our five hours, including a river swim through mangroves and in caves, plus enjoying the Mexico Show Spectacular. This is such a very well done park, we highly recommend it!